A Robust Multi-dimensional Poverty Profile for Uganda

We compute a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Uganda following the specification by Alkire and Santos and the general approach of Alkire and Forster. Using household survey data we show how the incidence of multi-dimensional poverty has fallen in recent years and we use the decomposability features of the index to explain the reduction in multi-dimensional poverty. The robustness of our results is tested in a stochastic dominance framework and using statistical inference. Notably, we extend the one-dimensional analysis of stochastic dominance to include household size as a second dimension, thus taking into account that MPI indicators are collected at both household and individual levels. Moreover, we extend the standard two-stage application of the MPI to include a third stage, which is important given the high degree of multiple deprivations within the standard of living dimension.